Prosecution: Oil Spill Skipper Was In Bars

ANCHORAGE — The prosecutor in Alaska`s oil spill trial asserted Monday that Capt. Joseph Hazelwood spent several hours in bars before boarding the Exxon Valdez for its ill-fated voyage.

The defense acknowledged that Hazelwood had consumed alcohol but countered that at the time the prosecution said he was in a bar he was sober and at a florist ordering flowers to be sent to his wife on Long Island.

``Alcohol had nothing to do with this case,`` said Hazelwood`s lawyer, Dick Madson, ``nothing to do with what happened.``

What happened was the nation`s largest and most expensive oil spill, 11 million gallons of crude oil that poured from the supertanker after it ran aground in Prince William Sound about 50 miles out of Valdez a few minutes after midnight on March 24, 1989.

Hazelwood is charged with a felony and three misdemeanors accusing him of operating a water craft while intoxicated, reckless endangerment and negligent discharge of oil. The state says Hazelwood`s blood-alcohol readings exceeded Coast Guard limits when tested almost 11 hours after the accident.

The captain, bearded and balding, listened intently to opening arguments Monday as he was described to the jury first as negligent and reckless, then as a superb seaman in full command of a ship that might have crashed because of a helmsman`s error.

Assistant District Attorney Brent Cole said that a witness will testify that Hazelwood was buying drinks in a Valdez bar hours before his ship set sail.

Hazelwood is accused of leaving the bridge in an especially dangerous part of the trip, turning command of the ship over to an unqualified person after setting a collison course with a reef to avoid icebergs and unwisely trying to work the ship off the reef after it hit.

``Testimony will show that if the ship came off the rocks, it would have capsized,`` Cole said.

The defense says Hazelwood did nothing illegal, had been drinking but was not drunk and that in running the ship`s engines after the accident, he was trying to stablize the craft, not back it off the reef.

``You will hear experts say it was an excellent job of seamanship, and not an effort to get the ship off the reef,`` Madson said.

Those are just a few of the major points of disagreement over who or what caused the spill. Though there are many issues over which the lawyers will battle, the one of sobriety probably captures the most attention.

The jury of nine women and five men, including two alternates, heard Cole describe Hazelwood`s actions in Valdez, beginning with lunch with a pilot friend and two ship`s officers at an Italian restaurant where the captain drank ice tea.

After lunch, the men split up agreeing to meet at 4:30 p.m. at the Pipeline Club, a dimly lighted restaurant and bar.

Cole said a witness, Janice Delozier, will testify that she saw Hazelwood in the bar about 1:45 p.m., and that he consumed two vodka drinks while she was there.

Cole said that Hazelwood remained in the Pipeline Club until 7:30 p.m., violating a Coast Guard rule against drinking within four hours of boarding time. He was scheduled to board at 9:30 p.m.

Cole said Hazelwood left the Pipeline Club to order pizzas at the Pizza Palace, but went next door to the Club Valdez, a waterfront bar, for another drink while the pizzas were cooking.

A cab picked up the men and took them to the ship at 8:24 p.m., Cole said.

Madson countered the drunkeness accusations by saying that when Hazelwood checked in at the Alyeska Terminal, where the Exxon Valdez was docked, Alyeska personnel did not challenge Hazelwood as inebriated.

In describing the sequence of events that led to the accidents, Cole said Hazelwood left the bridge at its most dangerous part of the journey, through the Valdez Narrows, turning command of the ship over to a third mate. Cole asserted that the mate was not qualified to pilot the ship through Prince William Sound, but the defense disputes this.

Hazelwood gave orders to steer the Exxon Valdez to avoid icebergs, then gave an order to get the ship back in the channel so it would not collide with Bligh Reef.

Madson said if the order had been carried out, ``the ship would have missed Bligh Reef by almost two miles.``